The creative energy over here is palpable right now. Thick, buzzing, flowing, like butterflies, migrating - flitting and lovely with purpose, and tickling the senses. It is easy to be sent into a trance by it. For me this happens in two ways, mostly.

The first, is a sort of sedated, mystified trance where the energy just seems to permeate outward like steam rising from a lake - or like those butterflies, on their merry way to a destination for reasons only their cells can navigate - a mystery to me, as blessed observer. The other 'trance' option is a focused state, one-pointed focus that is, with commitment to channeling the energy, when I am able to capture some of it on the page in word and color, as if studying just one winged beauty at a time - the flap of her colorful wing, her fickle presence, the curious way her proboscis comes upon the nectar she needs.

Both ways of experiencing my creative energy, and the workings of my mind and spirit, teach me things, and both make the experience of the other more inspired, more insightful, I find.

I am in a creative season that asks for focus right now, as I begin to film, record and write into being my workshops for Spectrum. and the vision and intention I hold for the women I will be mentoring one-on-one through the course of Spectrum, as well. This is where I will be pouring my energy, shining light on connections between the creative process and our amazing bodies, carving spaces for others to celebrate and explore their own wisdom. In pouring forth for others in this one-pointed way, I always receive so much as well... insights that cannot be anticipated. They are gifts born of the process of creating and sharing. They are amplified when we come together to do this work.

I am grateful for two places that will nurture my more intimate, personal practice as I move into the labor cycle of an offering to nurture the same in others - they are Lisa Sonora Beam's 30 Day Journal Project and Connie Hozvicka's Painting the Feminine. If I learned anything, from caregiving as a nurse, that is crucial to apply to the creative process, it's that we must fill our own cups to be able to pour into others openly and wholeheartedly.

{The journal spread above was a session from one of Lisa's prompts on Roots - a favorite topic of mine, as all things tree related tend to be}